Last triathlon of the season, I doubt this report can compete with Ris and his emotional rollercoaster of a race ( see race reports, I almost missed it )A different contrast to the Louth sprint at the beginning of the month. That race was slightly more expensive, and if you wanted a t shirt you had to pay extra, but, both races allow you register the evening before, however, the Brigg one requires compulsory attendance at race briefing 7:30am, all bikes to be racked by 8am, where as Louth has an online briefing and check the notice board, and you can rack anytime before your race time, so Brigg meant getting up at stupid o'clock to get sorted by silly o'clock to then hang around for two hours before race start.

The last run I did was two days after Louth, and put my back out, it generally goes awol twice a year or some reason, so no running for three weeks prior to race day, but, you can only take away what you bring to the party, and being fit to finish, I worked on a race strategy to give me what I hoped was a decent race. There are always going to be ' what ifs ', and the past is a country you cannot visit, so, no point in thinking well maybe, after the fact. Just learn and move on.

The race when it first started about 12 years ago was the ideal tri for beginners, you could see a vast assortment of bikes and gear, nowadays it is a bling fest. Fast and flat, end of season, the course record is about 54 mins, or just under.

I opted to go for none aero, which may be surprising, given the course nature, but aero, disc wheel, bike shoes, and aero helmet, I decided would not outweigh, lightness of bike etc due to my reduced fitness and lack of race fitness having only used my TT bike twice this year, so it was TT bike, with trainer platforms rather than bike shoes.

Swim

16 lengths, count your own, no running on the poolside. The swim brief included the ' if you catch the swimmer ahead, tap the toes, and if you get tapped stop at the end, to be overtaken, there isn't much room to overtake in the pool ". As the race is constantly running, my swim start has taken on the proverbial, go at the B of the Bang. The starter counts down, and my toes are just leaving the wall as they shout go, rather than start the push off at the word go. Except if swimmers in the lane have just turned, I will then draft behind, tap, and overtake at the end, a couple of seconds lost, , but energy saved, and prevention of early onset oxygen debt as I warm up, the seconds lost are quickly made up.Everything was going swimmingly, until, the next wave started and the buffoon, thought that overtaking with on coming swimmer was a great idea, I moved into the ropes at the side as best I could, however, sadly, our arms became entwined with a loud thud. I hope that swimmer has realised that when you have a panzer tank approaching you, it is advantageous to get out of the way, you will not come off better. My arm continued in its usual forward rotation pulling his arm with it. The rest of the swim continued without any more incidents.

00:08:00 ( 30th ), fastest time 00:05:57

T1

00:00:55 ( 29th ), fastest time 00:00:32

Bike

A nice fast flat there and back course, with a couple of roundabouts which caused a small time penalty due to one Porsche Boxster driver who thought that going around the mini roundabout in front of me a couple of times was a funny jape, and a second roundabout with a small queue of traffic, causing another small time penalty. Throughout the race, I decided to run on feel, not HR, or pace, I didn't even use a stopwatch, it was just a case of hanging on at the pace I most felt like giving up on.A slight headwind on the way out, and tailwind on return, only got overtaken by one other rider in the last half mile. So pleased with that.

00:35:41 ( 34th ), fastest time 00:29:45

T2

00:00:37 ( 1st ), fastest time, that was me,

Run

A flat, out and back course, partly urban, partly rural, plenty of opportunity to see where your rivals are on the course. A small twinge in the left calf, and left knee, but otherwise, it was a case of holding on, and not getting demoralised by being overtaken, not brilliant, more a psychological defeat as running use to be my A game, but not any more.Back to the finish, and relax.

A nice little end of season blast and not too far behind the fastest time. Did the race present value for money as (to me) it seems a bit pricey? Either that or I'm out of touch with the price of Triathlon related goods and services...?

Kevy427 wrote:A nice little end of season blast and not too far behind the fastest time. Did the race present value for money as (to me) it seems a bit pricey? Either that or I'm out of touch with the price of Triathlon related goods and services...?

I am happy to fork out the forty quid, particularly as it is ' a local race, run by local people ', rather than races being taken over and being run by companies. £35-£45 seems to be the going rate these days, for a sprint, £65-£85 for an OD, but they hike the price if it is a qualifier or WTS event, then it gets stupid. Personally, if I want to do a particular race I will pay a price, even if it is over the odds, I enjoy M-dot events, so will happily pay their price.The Brigg event for me gives reasonable value,Use of pool on a normal day £3:50If I did a Ten mile TT £12If I did a 5km race £12+Cost of technical t shirt from sports shop £4Cost of Buff £4:00So if it was broken down, then reasonable value. I enjoy racing local, it gives people I know a chance to laugh at my expense

Triathlon is made out to be an expensive sport, but, it doesn't need to be, I would be clueless as to the expense of cycle spirtives etc

However, I am sure I can pick up a few tips from Lord Sugar, as he starts Muppet Hunting this week, when it comes to making money.

I guess I haven't entered any events for many, many years as I'm a tad cynical having been on the 'other side'. It's good to support locally as you don't have your ears pulled off and your trousers around your ankles when booking suitable accommodation unless it's Brighton. Apparently. So I've been told

I have my popcorn ready to chomp and a pile of scatter cushions to launch at the telebox at 21:00:43 when we hear the first Muppet announce "I'm here to bring Sir Lord Alan Sucrose the riches he's craved for as I'm the smartest, best looking, most arrogant and best performing vacuum cleaner salesman in the whole of Streatham (Central Area). I'll hoover up all the other contestants and empty them in the recycling bin"

Having seen the short ' meet the candidates ' on iPlayer, I worry for the future of business. Just a short elevator pitch, with a helicopter overview whilst they get boots on the ground, as the envelope their blue sky thinking.

I can well imagine your cynical thinking from seeing the event from ' the other side '. Kevy, were you able to pass on any wisdom to our club colleague who was involved in the Cotswold Sportive?

jonathon.e wrote:Having seen the short ' meet the candidates ' on iPlayer, I worry for the future of business. Just a short elevator pitch, with a helicopter overview whilst they get boots on the ground, as the envelope their blue sky thinking.

jonathon.e wrote:I can well imagine your cynical thinking from seeing the event from ' the other side '. Kevy, were you able to pass on any wisdom to our club colleague who was involved in the Cotswold Sportive?

I most certainly did provide a brain drain to help their event, and was only too happy to

The Velo South was meant to be happening down here at the end of September (100 miles, closed roads, villagers with pitchforks etc.) but was called off due to the rather breezy weather which was happened upon us. The locals weren't too happy because of the way the event was thrust upon them without proper notice, lack of access to the Mail on Sunday, everyone of them needing to visit sick relatives on that particular day, duration of road closures, encouraging the 15000 attendees to park in 'local villages' near to Goodwood etc. There's more than enough parking at Goodwood as they manage to put on a few little events each year without parking issues...The Velo South organisers were charging for people to park at the Motor Circuit

In fairness to them though the riders are being refunded their entrance fees even though there is a clause in the T's & C's about it not happening due to an event of Satan etc.

There are always work around when it comes to events, I remember on the first HIMUK in 2001, they notified all residents of the event well in advance, of a rolling road closure, but, unfortunately, Sunday in the Welsh valleys, the locals always go to church, and nothing, not even 1500 cyclists is going to stop them, but, you accept the odd miscreant may not adapt well to change and live with it. The link is to a reporter from the Irish Times regarding the 70.3 in Ireland, and written from what seems to be a point of not being able to get his car out of his drive to pick up the Sunday paper 200yards down the road.

The reporter was probably singled out in games for failing to bring his kit and made to run round the sports field in his underpants, and is jealous of all the triathletes runnng around his town in nothing more than their underpants